Space Objects
Make your day better with these 8 cool space things that have totally ridiculous names: MSN.com – May 17
It’s another weird object! Voorwerp means ‘object’ in Dutch, which makes Hanny’s Voorwerp Hanny’s Object. It was discovered by citizen scientist and school teacher Hanny van Arkel in 2007 as part of the volunteer Galaxy Zoo project, and boy is it an oddball. It’s a glowing glob of gas floating in space right next to what seems to be an otherwise perfectly normal galaxy 650 million light-years away.
Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction
Three finalists named for Harper Lee legal fiction prize: Tuscaloosa News – May 19
Three books have been chosen as finalists for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, according to a news release from The University of Alabama School of Law.“The Satapur Moonstone” by Sujata Massey, “The Hallows” by Victor Methos and “An Equal Justice” by Chad Zunker will contend for the honor.
Mental Health Training
UA researchers to develop mental health training for police: WBRC-Fox 6 – May 19
Law enforcement officers throughout Tuscaloosa county will soon be better equipped to interact with citizens with serious mental illness and substance abuse. Dr. Hee Yun Lee, a professor in The University of Alabama School of Social Work, was awarded a $375,000 dollar grant to develop a web-app training course to help police officers respond appropriately to these situations.
Nick 97.5 FM – May 18
WVUA – May 19
Fulbright Awards
Eleven UA students win Fulbright Awards: WVUA – May 20
Eleven University of Alabama students won Fulbright Awards. The Fulbright program is the most prestigious U.S. international exchange program, offering one-year grants for independent study and research. Two UA students received research awards, and nine won Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Awards.
Metabolic Rates
‘Monty’s a good snake, aren’t you?’: Is the way pythons control their own genes the future of medicine?: Independent – May 21
On a cold, grey winter day, Stephen Secor pulled into the driveway of David and Amber Nelson who welcomed him into their converted basement, filled with stacks of refrigerator-size, glass-doored cages. Each cage contained a massive snake. Some of the Nelsons’ pythons and boa constrictors were recent adoptions from Secor’s lab, a few miles to the west at The University of Alabama.
Deaf Community
Deaf community faces hurdles during the pandemic: WVUA – May 21
Recently, clear face masks have been in the news as an aide for the Deaf community, but there are still issues the Deaf community face. Clear face masks are a step forward to helping the Deaf community interact, as facial expressions are one of five aspects of American Sign Language, according to Kent Schafer, a doctoral student in psychology at The University of Alabama. Without facial expressions, he said, it’s like missing every other word in a conversation.
Papish Lab
The May 2020 edition of the Crystallography Times newsletter is online: City-Room – May 23
The “Lab in the Spotlight” feature presents The Papish Lab at The University of Alabama. The group, headed by Dr. Elizabeth T. Papish in Tuscaloosa, focuses on bioinorganic and organometallic chemistry. Their aim is to mimic how nature controls reactivity by using hydrogen bonds or protonation/deprotonation to control reactivity.